Warm Heart Worldwide, Nonprofit Founded by Rutgers Professor Emeritus Michael Shafer, Lauded for its Work in Thailand

Warm Heart Worldwide Inc.  – founded by former Highland Park, N.J., residents D. Michael Shafer, a Rutgers professor of political science emeritus, and Evelind Schecter – has been honored with a prestigious 2012 Top-Rated Award by GreatNonprofits, whose mission is to “inspire and inform donors and volunteers, enable nonprofits to show their impact, and promote greater feedback and transparency.”

Working with nonprofits is nothing new for Shafer, who directed Rutgers’ Citizenship and Service Education program for 10 years. He also founded both Global PACT, a program that teaches conflict resolution and community-building skills, and njserves.org, a virtual meeting place for volunteers and community-based organizations in need of assistance.

“We are excited to be named a top-rated 2012 nonprofit,” said Shafer, who taught 25 years at Rutgers before leaving in 2008. “It has been a huge year for us, and this is a wonderful award for all the effort. We increased the number of kids in our Children’s Homes from 22 to 37, started Project Access to provide wheelchairs and other mobility aids to every person in need in the district, and expanded our microenterprise program for landless women.”

The Top-Rated Nonprofit Award was based on the large number of positive reviews that Warm Heart received – reviews written by volunteers and donors, many of them Rutgers faculty and former students.

One volunteer wrote, “Our efforts went directly to helping the communities around Phrao (Thailand). It was a life changing experience.” Another reported, “Warm Heart is the perfect example of what a change agent should be – adaptive, persistent, and truly integrated into the community in which they serve.”

“Being on the Top-Rated list comes at an important time of the year, as donors look for causes to support during the holiday season,” said Shafer.

“We are gratified by the work Warm Heart does and the way it does it,” said Perla Ni, CEO of GreatNonprofits. “They deserve to be discovered by more donors and volunteers who are looking for a great nonprofit to support.” She added that reviews by volunteers and other donors show the on-the-ground results of this nonprofit and that the award is recognition by the people best positioned to know the real story.

Phrao, where Warm Heart works, has a population of 54,000 and four doctors. More than one-third of the population owns no land and another third owns too little to live on. The landless work as agricultural day laborers five months a year, and they and their families – 18,000 people – live on less than the Thai National Poverty Level of $1.67 per day.

The average level of education is fourth grade. “When people leave Phrao to look for work, they end up at the bottom of the food chain,” Shafer said. “Phrao is surrounded by mountains and has no economic prospects, and climate change is already threatening our staple crop, rice.”

Warm Heart addresses these problems in collaboration with villages. Education projects include Children’s Homes for kids from isolated mountain villages with no schools. Warm Heart’s income-generation projects include teaching women to grow, spin, organically dye and weave silk, and teaching mountain farmers to grow high-quality Arabic coffee. Public health projects include providing vitamins to pregnant and nursing women, clean water to villages, eye glasses to poor school children, and the only day program for elders and the disabled in Phrao.

Warm Heart’s mission is to ensure that all Phrao residents have equal access to basic services and an equal opportunity to build better lives, Shafer explained. “We provide equal access to education and health services, and the knowledge and skills to create sustainable livelihoods,” he said. “Warm Heart is a nonreligious, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the radical idea that every human being deserves the same chance to succeed, whether born into poverty or prosperity.”